Don’t let the bed bugs bite!

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I never paid much attention to that saying. Mostly because I was not born in an English speaking country. I had never heard it. And then because I hardly had any idea of what a bed bug was in the first place. Had I understood what it was, I would have a brief thought of “Yuck! “ and dismiss it, because I didn’t even think such things still existed. So it really took me by surprised when I saw a headline about bedbugs in a newspaper. Now you guys know I don’t read the papers much, but I felt curious and started reading. To my surprise – and almost panic – I learned that bedbugs seem to have become a problem in here. The article reported that many more cases of infestation were appearing in the city each day and even report cases where people got them after staying at an hotel. I was feeling uneasy, how would I know if I have them in my house? Could someone bring them over in their clothes or something? Then I learned that one of my son’s friends had a huge problem with bedbugs in his house. I have to be honest, I like the kid, but I have asking my son not to visit him in his home and not to socialize with him much. I have been worrying that he might come to visit us in here – he often does – because I don’t know what to do. Let him in? Ask him to wait outside? I might have been raised in a very sheltered way. I understand that. I had never seen mice in a house until I came here – I knew they existed, but from my experience they would be found outside the big city and in very old houses. Roaches I had heard of, but again had never seen one in a house . I had seen quite some huge ones when I lived in Brazil and Angola. Some were huge. But I have never seen one inside a house. Same with lice. Lice was something that the gipsy kids had and we were warned to be careful. Funny thing I never believed they existed. I thought it was a scheme from our moms so we wouldn’t play with them. Bedbugs, I had never even heard of. And when I did, almost as an adult, I thought that existed because way before I was born, some people still had mattress that were filled with straw and maybe those bugs like straw. I didn’t even consider in my mind that people would be able to find them in their houses now. I know that the insect population really went down with the use of DDT. But now DDT is not considered safe and is not used anymore, so I guess they are coming back. I since learned of 4 or 5 more people that I know that had to deal with bedbugs, one of them that seems to have brought them back from an hotel stay. Public health has some posts in their site, relating to bedbugs and does confirm that there are many cases and suggest that people avoid buying second hand furniture, specially bedroom furniture. This leaves me a bit anxious. I don’t think I would be able to sleep if I knew that I would have some crawly up my leg/arm/torso etc, ready to feast on my blood. I wouldn’t know what to do or how to get rid of them. Are there reports of bedbug infestations increasing in your area? Are you worried? Have you ever seen one? Feel free to call me an idiot for being so anxious about this LOL